


Through The Ages

by goodluckgettingtosleep



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Best Friends, Bisexual Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Boys In Love, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mostly Fluff, Oblivious Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Pansexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Pining, Prompt Fill, Rough Kissing, Songwriting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29984457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodluckgettingtosleep/pseuds/goodluckgettingtosleep
Summary: “So Luke, huh?” Alex asks, a small smile pulling at his lips. Reggie just grunts in agreement. “You know, I couldn’t stop him from confronting Julie about the song, but it‘s only a matter of minutes until she tells him that she didn’t write it.”“It doesn’t matter now,” Reggie says quietly. “He didn’t even stop to consider that it’s mine. He just thinks I’m a loser who writes bad country songs.”or, After a few failed attempts at telling Luke how he feels about him, Reggie decides to write Luke a song instead. He sneaks it into Luke's journal, excitedly waiting for his best friend to find it. But when Luke finally does, he assumes Julie wrote it.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina & Luke Patterson, Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 139





	Through The Ages

**Author's Note:**

> for the prompt: "For a request can I ask for Reggie being super really excited about sneaking a song into Luke’s book that he thinks is the best he’s ever done (and it’s totally not a love song about Like, shh) and when Luke finds it he thinks Julie wrote it. Cue poor Reg being HEARTBROKEN and Luke being clueless, having to have a convo with Julie about not liking her that way (when didn’t they just talk about this last week?) and Alex and Julie having to help these idiots" 
> 
> hello friends, i'm back 🖤  
> i'm STILL working on the camping au and it's coming soon, promise. it's like 14k now. we'll see, haha. i am also working on chapter two for september night! loads of exciting stuff in the works. there might even be a cool collab on the horizon 👀 
> 
> anyway, i was in need of writing something else for a night, so here we are. this was fun. especially because i wrote a song for this that is basically just me being a history nerd. once again i wish i could write actual music. still working on that. 
> 
> anyway! 
> 
> once again special thanks to [@DaintyDuck_99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaintyDuck_99) for being my beta so we don't have to die like sunset curve, and also for being the best cheerleader 🖤

Reggie’s thought this through. Really, he has. He’s taken his time to figure out how he truly feels about Luke after the little incident at practice when Luke tried to prove that he has chemistry with him, too. It’s almost ironic that Luke was not only absolutely right, but also that he managed to make something shift so fundamentally inside Reggie’s chest. Reggie is now sure that he is bisexual. Which is a term he hadn’t even known until Julie told him about it when he asked her if it’s possible to like both girls and boys in a bit of a panic the other week. 

What he isn’t so sure about, however, is whether he actually wants to _tell_ Luke that he’s embarrassingly, completely and irrevocably in love with him. It feels a little awkward after being best friends for ten years, but at the same time it feels like the easiest and most natural thing in the world. Still, Reggie can’t imagine just _telling_ him, like, right to his face. Especially because he isn’t sure how Luke actually feels about Julie, and he doesn’t think he could bear getting rejected quite so directly. So, he thinks it over for a while until he feels like he’s about to burst at the seams, because it’s on his mind constantly and he can barely focus on anything else anymore. He keeps messing up at practice, missing cues and chords, stares at Luke for much longer than would be considered appropriate, and can barely sit still anymore. Long story short, it’s driving him insane. And that’s how he knows that he has to get it out _somehow,_ no matter what. 

So he tries and fails to tell Luke twice. The first time, they’re alone in the garage, idly jamming on their respective instruments. Reggie keeps staring at Luke’s profile, and his gaze must be burning, because Luke snaps around to him eventually and eyes him curiously. 

“Why do you keep staring at me?” he asks, sounding a little irritated. “I can’t focus on this song at all!” 

Reggie bites his lip and closes his eyes. 

“I— I wanted to tell you something,” he stutters out. Luke just keeps looking at him expectantly, eyebrows raised, and Reggie falters. It’s not the right moment. Luke seems a little stressed, and Reggie doesn’t want to catch him off guard in the wrong moment. 

“Reg? Come on, you know you can tell me anything,” Luke says after several long moments of silence. His voice sounds softer now, but the moment is gone. Reggie isn’t sure it was even there in the first place. 

“I— um— I miss hanging out at the beach together,” he blurts in lieu of any better idea. It’s not even a lie, either. He does miss spending his afternoons with Luke and Alex at the beach, hanging out and playing music. 

Luke’s expression softens, and there is a small smile pulling at his lips. 

“I miss that, too. Let’s go tomorrow, huh?” 

Reggie nods, returning his smile and sighing to himself. He’s got butterflies fluttering around his insides when Luke looks at him like that, and it’s so hard to keep it in and not do anything stupid. Like lean over and kiss him. Which would be a really bad idea, because Reggie has no idea if Luke would want him to. _Ever._ So he goes back to strumming on his bass, mind racing at a hundred miles per minute. He’ll get another moment, he’s sure. 

The second time he tries and fails, they’re at the beach together the next day. Alex is off on a date with Willie, and Julie is at school, so it’s just Reggie and Luke again. They’re sitting on a log, playing music to unaware passersby and watching them as they go about their days. Reggie’s eyes get caught on two boys kissing pressed against a palm tree, and he sighs longingly. He doesn’t _mean_ to, really. But the sound escapes his lips before he can stop it. Luke follows his gaze, and then claps Reggie on the back, grinning knowingly. 

“See something you like, Reg?” he asks teasingly. 

Reggie blushes, but glares at him anyway. 

“Yeah,” he grumbles. “I miss kissing.” 

He can’t really miss kissing Luke, because he’s never kissed him before, but somehow he does anyway. 

Luke chuckles. 

“Oh, yeah? Who‘d you wanna kiss?” he asks bluntly. Reggie gasps a little because he knows he won’t get a better chance. This is it. Luke served it to him on a silver platter. He braces himself, opening his mouth to admit it, to _finally_ tell him— 

“Stupid question, I’ve seen the way you keep eyeing the cheerleaders at Julie’s school,” Luke jokes. Reggie wants to hit him. _No, no, no._ “Same old Reggie.” 

“No, I—” Reggie starts, but Luke claps him on the back again. 

“It’s okay, Reg. They’re all very pretty. And for the record, I miss kissing, too.” 

Reggie closes his mouth and grunts. He makes a face and strums the acoustic guitar he’s holding a little too hard, making the strings ring out a little too sharply. The moment is gone, and Reggie knows he will never get another one quite so perfect. 

He hates Luke a little bit for ruining it for him. But the worst is that he could never hate him at all, not even a little bit, because one look at his eyes sparkling in the sunlight is enough to make Reggie’s heart beat a little faster. And listening to him belting out his lyrics right there on the beach nearly sends Reggie to a different universe. Luke is like a star in the night sky. He keeps on burning, even after he’s long dead. And even when he can’t be seen, his light still shines on brightly. But Reggie _can_ see him, and Luke lights up his entire world. 

Reggie feels a little disheartened after his failed attempts at telling Luke that he developed some feelings for him that are a little bit different than their friendship has been so far. He’s moping around the Molinas’ house a few days later, hiding from Luke in an attempt to clear his head— with very little success. The stupid boy is all he can think about. 

The lightbulb moment comes when he stumbles upon an old typewriter in the basement. He wants to knock himself out with it, because he doesn’t understand why writing a song wasn’t his first idea. He’s a song writer! And so is Luke. They’re musicians! Of course he should vent his feelings through a song. So, Reggie sits down on the dusty basement floor, puts the typewriter in his lap, and starts typing. 

He has no idea how much time has passed, but he sits in the middle of an ocean of discarded paper when he finally looks back up and feels good about what he wrote. So he pulls the sheet out and reads it again, grinning to himself as he does. He thinks this might be the best song he’s ever written. 

_**Through The Ages** _

_If it was the stone age still_

_I would share my cave with you,_

_My fire and my kill_

_And I would say ~~“I love you”~~ “Oompa Hoompa”_

_Hoping in my heart you feel the same_

_Because I would love you_

_Through the ages_

_~~From Ancient Greece to Roman Empires~~ _

_From The Bronze Age to Ancient Greece_

_From ~~Bysantine~~ Byzantine to Renaissance _

_We would live in medieval castles,_

_Fight dragons on horses,_

_Dance through ~~Jane Austen novels~~ Regency England, _

_And solve Victorian crimes like we’re Sherlock Holmes_

_If it was the Middle Ages still,_

_I would make you my king,_

_~~My love and my thrill,~~ _

_At the tip of a quill,_

_And I would say “Thee I love”_

_Hoping in my heart you feel the same_

_Because I would love you_

_Through the ages_

_From The Iron Age to Ancient Rome_

_From ~~the~~ Black Plague to Enlightenment _

_We would survive the ~~Titantic~~ Titanic sinking, _

_Star in silent movies,_

_Dance through ~~the~~ roaring 20s, _

_And help the ~~Suffa~~ ~~Suffragets~~ Suffragettes fighting for their rights _

_I don’t need a history book_

_To tell you how I feel_

_Oh, but ~~it’s so much easier~~ baby take a look _

_And isn’t it ideal_

_That I can love you now_

_And it’s so easy_

_Just you and me_

_In all of human history_

_But I would love you_

_Through the ages_

_From Shakespeare to Van Gogh_

_From Fred Astaire to ~~Freddie~~ Mercury_

_We would rock out at Woodstock,_

_And climb the Berlin Wall,_

_Dance through ~~the~~ Love Parades, _

_And scream it from the rooftops that we’re so in love_

It’s dark outside when Reggie emerges from the basement, and he genuinely feels a little bad when his band mates immediately swarm him in a group hug when he returns to the garage. 

“We were so worried, Reg,” Alex says with a frown. “We thought maybe Caleb came back for you, or something.” 

Luke and Julie nod with matching frowns on their faces. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, cheeks pink. “I just needed a little time to myself.” 

His friends accept that as an apology, but ask him to tell them where he’s going next time. He thinks that’s fair enough. He would worry too, if one of them disappeared for an entire afternoon. 

Reggie is almost painfully aware of the song in the back pocket of his jeans, and the urge to put it in Luke’s songbook as soon as possible itches under his skin. 

He waits until Luke is busy tuning his acoustic guitar and quickly sneaks it in, almost bursting with giddy excitement as he does. Part of it is due to the thrill of almost being caught because Luke is _right there_ , he thinks. But then he looks up and finds Alex’s eyes on him, and realises he _has_ been caught. He feels heat rising to his cheeks, quickly putting some distance between him and the songbook. Alex doesn’t really look bothered or surprised at all, and Reggie assumes he thinks it’s just another one of his country songs. So Reggie tries to calm his nerves as he grabs his bass, hands shaking a little when he starts plucking at the strings. Now he has to wait until Luke finds the song, and then… Well, he’s not actually sure what’s going to happen then. He’ll just wing it in the moment. It’ll be fine, probably. Right? 

It’s not fine. It takes Luke until the following afternoon to find the song. He used the journal in the meantime, but always directly opened it on an empty page and started scribbling. Reggie anxiously gnawed on his lower lip every time, jumping at every single tiny noise around him. He felt Alex’s curious gazes on him all the time too, and it’s all he can do to stop himself from just yelling at Luke to finally look at the damn song. 

So Reggie nearly bursts with the intensity of his emotions, the nervousness running through his veins, and the excited buzz in his chest when Luke finally catches the sheet as it’s falling out of his book. He unfolds it, and starts reading, eyes growing wider and cheeks increasingly pink as he goes along. Reggie braces himself. Any moment now. Any moment, Luke would either let him down gently, tell him he feels the same, or tell Reggie that they couldn’t be friends anymore. All of Reggie’s bets are on option one, but what he actually gets, he did not see coming at all. 

“What is it?” Alex asks curiously, eyes darting over to Reggie. Reggie is sure he looks like he’s frozen to the spots 

“It’s— it’s a song,” Luke says slowly, eyes still glued to the page. “It’s brilliant! Absolutely _insane—_ The imagery of these lyrics! Julie has really outdone herself this time. Even though I don’t understand why she would put a love song in my journal, when we both agreed we were better off as friends.” 

The nervous smile leaves Reggie’s face in an instant. _Julie?_ Right. Luke thinks Julie wrote the song. Because there is no way _Reggie_ would ever write something like it. Right. 

“How do you know it was Julie?” Alex asks, knowing eyes on Reggie now. Reggie thinks he finds sympathy there as well, along with exasperation. 

“Who else would have written this and put it in my journal?” Luke asks with a frown. And that just feels like a punch to the gut. To hear that Luke thinks so little of him and his songwriting that there is no way in his mind that Reggie could have possibly written the song— It hurts more than Reggie expected. 

“You?” Luke adds with a laugh towards Alex. 

That’s all Reggie needs to hear. He directs one last sad look at the back of Luke’s head before poofing out. He ends up at the pier, sitting on the wooden planks and staring at the horizon as if it could somehow console his heartbreak. It’s glaringly obvious now that Luke doesn’t like him like that— just as he expected. But the fact that Luke didn’t even consider that he could be the author of the song for even a second— Damn, that hurts. He hates himself a little when he feels the first tears rolling down his cheeks. They’re followed by a sob, and then he’s just sitting there by himself crying and feeling lonely and miserable. He wishes Alex was there with him, because he is in mighty need of a hug. And he thinks he wishes for it so hard that he startles even more than he usually would have when Alex suddenly appears next to him. 

“I knew you’d be here,” he says softly and sits down next to him, immediately pulling Reggie into a hug when he notices his tears. He runs a hand up and down Reggie’s back in a soothing motion, just letting him cry onto his hoodie for a little while. When Reggie pulls away after a small eternity, eyes burning and feeling a little exhausted from crying too much, Alex reaches out to brush his last tears away from his cheeks. 

“So Luke, huh?” he asks, a small smile pulling at his lips. Reggie just grunts in agreement. “You know, I couldn’t stop him from confronting Julie about the song, but it‘s only a matter of minutes now that she tells him that she didn’t write it.” 

“It doesn’t matter now,” Reggie says quietly. “He didn’t even stop to consider that it’s mine. He just thinks I’m a loser who writes bad country songs.” 

Alex frowns and shoves him a little too hard to be considered playful. 

“He definitely does not think that. Luke is just a little oblivious sometimes. He’ll come around. I think he just assumes you’d never feel that way about him.” 

Reggie bites his lip. He doesn’t quite believe Alex, but he lets his words comfort him anyway. 

“But I do,” Reggie breathes. “God, Alex. I love him so much. He’s been driving me _insane_ for weeks now. Maybe before, too. I just didn’t realise.” 

Alex smiles, reaching to cup Reggie’s cheeks in his hands and he looks him in the eyes. 

“I know, Reg. I had a hunch before. Wasn’t sure until Luke serenaded you with _Great,_ though.” 

Reggie perks up. 

“That’s when I realised, too!” he says a little too excitedly. Alex chuckles. 

“You and Luke are both hopeless. For what it’s worth, though— I think there’s a good chance he likes you back, Reg.” 

Reggie hums, turning away from Alex to look back out over the ocean. 

“I’m not so sure about that. But I guess there is only one person I can ask…” he says thoughtfully. He doesn’t want to feel his own misery for a single second longer. He needs to talk to Luke. Yell at him, even. Maybe. 

They poof back into the garage just in time to catch Luke and Julie in the middle of a heated discussion that almost looks like an argument, judging by the way Julie looks completely irritated. She glares daggers at Luke as he’s gesturing around with the song in his hand. 

“I _told_ you, Luke. It’s not my song. I don’t even like history that much. I would never write something like that,” she says, sounding exasperated. 

“Then _who_ would? The list of potential suspects is rather short, and it wasn’t Alex.” 

Julie sighs and throws her hands up in the air. 

“Reggie?” she suggests. 

Luke opens his mouth to say something, but then stops short as if something only just occurs to him. 

“Reggie,” he repeats, and Reggie is sure it’s only his own wishful thinking, but it sounds like there is something like wonder in Luke’s voice. 

“It’s true,” Reggie says, voice a little hoarse from crying for so long. “It’s my song.” 

Luke snaps around to him in lightning speed, eyes wide and cheeks red. 

“You— this— but—” Luke stutters. And it would be adorable if Reggie wasn’t still a little upset with him. “It’s brilliant, Reg. It’s— it’s so good. I love all the references in it, and how they paint a picture and make the emotions more palpable. But why didn’t you just give it to me, or tell me right away?” 

Reggie is about to reply honestly, but Luke is faster again. “Who is it about, anyway? I didn’t know you had feelings for someone.” 

He stares at Luke. He wants to kick him, really. Alex groans next to him. Then he walks over to Luke and slaps him hard around the head. 

“Get it together, you _dumbass_ ,” he hisses. Luke looks a little taken aback, eyes landing back on Reggie. 

“You can’t be serious, Luke,” Julie agrees, exasperation audible in her voice. 

Luke’s eyebrows rise impossibly higher. 

“What?” he asks like he genuinely has no idea. 

“For fuck’s sake, Luke! I wrote it for _you,_ you asshole. _Oompa Hoompa!”_ Reggie yells. He thinks he’s very close to losing it, which in hindsight, has probably been a long time coming. 

The lightbulb finally lights up above Luke’s head, illuminating his entire face as his eyes slowly widen. 

_“Me?”_ he shrieks. “You’re— you’re in love with me?” 

“I’m actually coming over there to kick you now, I swear to God, Patterson,” Reggie growls. 

Luke splutters, blushing, and raises his hands in surrender. 

“You didn’t believe in me enough to consider for just a second that I wrote the song.” 

Reggie marches across the room towards Luke, and actually does kick him in the shin before the singer can back off too far. 

“Ouch!” Luke swears and jumps, clutching his leg as he stares up at Reggie from underneath his eyelashes. Reggie is almost glad he’s feeling so enraged, or he might have melted into a puddle right there. Luke is like his kryptonite. 

“I tried to tell you before! When we saw those guys kissing at the beach! You wouldn’t even let me get a word in edgewise, just making assumptions about me! Newsflash, Lucas. I write songs, some of them don’t suck, I’m bisexual, and yes, I am in love with you. Don’t ask me why, though. I don’t even remember right now.” 

Reggie keeps backing Luke off until his back collides with a wall and Reggie crowds right into his space. 

“I’m sorry, Reg,” Luke says, and suddenly there is a tear running down his cheek, and the ice in Reggie’s chest immediately melts away. “I didn’t intend to make you feel that way. Of course you write good songs. Even the country ones don’t _suck._ I just— it didn’t occur to me at all that you might return my feelings. So I didn’t allow myself to— to consider it. It’s too painful, you know?”

“I— _what?”_ Reggie blinks. Luke couldn’t have said what he thinks he said, right? 

“You heard me, Reg,” Luke says shyly, averting his eyes. 

And well, Reggie suddenly feels like he’s in free fall, hurtling towards the ground and not knowing what he will land on. He’s imagined Luke’s reactions hundreds of times in his mind, but Luke liking him back seemed so unlikely that he always shoved the thought away— and now he doesn’t know what to do. 

“What?” he says again, a bit dumbly. He’s acutely aware of how close they still are. 

_“Oompa Hoompa,”_ Luke tells him around a laugh. And okay, Reggie appreciates Luke quoting his own song back at him, repeating the same implicit confession Reggie threw in his face earlier. But it doesn’t seem like enough after Reggie poured his heart out to him, leaving him raw and vulnerable. 

“Yeah, no, Luke. You’re gonna have to say it in modern English, or I won’t believe you.” 

Luke bites his lip, but holds his eye contact even as his cheeks turn faintly pink. There is a long pause, and Reggie starts feeling a little nervous, a little frayed around the edges.

“Just tell him, dude,” Alex comments from somewhere behind Reggie. Reggie lets out a shaky laugh. 

“You got this, Luke,” Julie agrees, and Luke clears his throat. 

“I— I’m in love with you too, man. Have been since ‘94.” 

Reggie gives himself a few seconds to process the words, and then he acts fully on instinct when he surges forward, pushes Luke back against the wall, and connects their lips in a rough, frantic kiss. He’s not being gentle, and neither is Luke, with the way he grabs him around the waist to draw him impossibly closer to his body. Reggie slows the kiss down until their lips are barely moving at all, and they just remain there pressed close together, holding on for dear life. Reggie feels Luke’s breath on his face, the soft, slightly chapped texture of Luke’s lips against his like a little bit of heaven. He wants them to melt together until it’s impossible to tell where one of them starts and the other ends. 

Luke kisses him again, much more gently this time, and Reggie moans softly. He feels something bubble up in his chest, and it comes out as exhilarated laughter. He pulls back, and Luke joins right in. They’re both laughing as they’re clutching at each other. 

Alex and Julie start clapping somewhere in the room, and Reggie laughs so hard that tears roll down his cheeks. The sound of Luke’s laughter is the most beautiful thing in the world, and Reggie wraps his arms around his waist from the side and clings to him as they’re both nearly toppling over. Luke loves him back. 

Reggie doesn’t think there is a better feeling in the whole entire universe. 

That night, they’re lying on the couch together, limbs entangled as Reggie kisses Luke’s neck and Luke brushes a hand through Reggie’s hair, humming a melody. 

“What’s that song?” Reggie asks, lips brushing against Luke’s skin. 

“It’s yours,” Luke tells him. “Or, it could be. It’s a melody I just came up with. Unless you already have one in mind, of course,” he hastens to add. 

“No, no, I— I just kinda sat down and wrote the lyrics. No music yet. And I loved that. Can you hum it again?” 

_“If it was the stone age still, I would share my cave with you, my fire and my kill._ _And I would say ’Oompa Hoompa’, hoping in my heart you feel the same. Because I would love you through the ages…”_ Luke sings softly. Reggie thinks his heart flutters a little at the sound of Luke’s voice curling itself around Reggie’s words. He feels the vibration of it, and he wants to stay there forever; in Luke’s arms, listening to him singing the truth of his heart, dressed in the fancy colors of human history. 

“You already know the words?” he asks with a soft, happy little laugh. 

“‘Course I do. It’s not every day someone writes me a love song.” 

Reggie bites him gently as he scoffs.

“You thought Julie wrote it.” 

Luke sighs. “How many more times are you gonna make me apologise for that? 

Propping himself up on Luke’s chest, Reggie grins at him. 

“I was pretty hurt, so probably a lot of times.” 

“I’m sorry,” Luke says and presses a kiss to the tip of Reggie’s nose. “I’m sorry.” He kisses his cheek next. “I’m sorry.” His forehead. “I’m sorry.” Luke keeps going like this, peppering Reggie’s face with featherlight kisses as he keeps saying sorry. Reggie closes his eyes and hums, revelling in the feeling of Luke’s lips and the butterflies beneath his ribcage making his skin tingle. Reggie doesn’t think the last line of his song has ever been more true. He wants to scream from the rooftops how much he loves his best friend.

“I love you,” Luke says at last, and pushes their lips together. “From here to eternity.” 

\- End. - 

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr [@sunsetcurveofficial](http://sunsetcurveofficial.tumblr.com)


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